I'd be interested in hearing opinions concerning the speed of link building and at what point does the rapid accumulation of incoming links trigger Google to consider that activity suspicious? For example, consider a (long) existing site with hundreds of incoming links. Now suppose we get aggressive and say "lets buy a bunch of incoming links" and do a deal with one of the many serices that do exactly that. So how many do we buy without having the site penalizing for going "0 to 60 in 2 seconds" so to speak. Can we buy 100? 1,000? 10,000? without worrying? It would seem the cautious approach would be to ramp up over a period of time. But that begs the question "at what rate?" How many per month should we buy? Are there any guidelines or rules of thumb about this? Certainly, other folks have pondered this.
Build as much quality links as you wish. Just don't do it in some automated spammy way and you will be fine.
I received a couple of hundred independent links (different websites) in the course of two weeks for one post. This did not set off any red flags. From those individual websites, I was added to their blogrolls (not sure of the count) which of course threw up an additional untold hundreds more links site-wide ... and that did not set off any red flags either. Do I have a point to make? Not really. But I should point out the all of the links in this example looked more natural, in that the anchor text varied and to some extent, the actual url to my site varied as well. Now compare that with an equivalent link campaign that introduces cookie cutter link code, and it may set off a red flag. As to how many in what time span, that is just a best guess. Only Google knows that answer.
It's difficult to say how fast is too fast because google does not give us this information but you should try to make your linkbuilding look natural not only should you have backlinks to your home page but you should also have backlinks to your sub-pages as well, and you should vary the anchor text used.
Don't think it really matters. There are start up companies with millions of dollars behind them that get large amounts of links in a very short time period and I haven't seen them penalized in anyway. Not 100% sure on this, but my opinion none the less.
It doesnt matter how fast you link build your website, its how effective and properly your link building methods are.
Many have pondered this but few have any answers they can back up with facts. Just add links in a way that feels right. Linking is only one part of web promotion strategy, and not nearly as important as content. A bunch of worthless links won't give a worthless site any value. Really good content and a few great links will. "You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig".
Google and other SEs must be able to cope with popular news stories which, when they go live, immediately generate a huge number of backlinks. For example, a report that Paris Hilton is having a sex change operation is likely to go ballistic - if it were true. But practically speaking - go for great content and seek quality links as previously advised - and try to get a good spread in link sources and you shouldn't trigger any sort of penalty.
I always argue when people say that building links too fast will hurt you. think about it. If your website was said on a national news channel, you would get thousands of backlinks that week possibly... Why would google ban a website that is super popular? Just do not make the links look spammy and you will be fine.
1. it all depends on the age of the Domain. 2. dont jump, gaining 2 links a day the vast majority of the time but 1,000 links inside a week then back to 2 WILL raise a red flag for search engines to find out whats going on. Spread them out if your buying a large amount or you risk getting penalised
How fast is too fast? How slow is too slow? That is a hypothetical question.. Nothing can be done too fast..
While this is partly true, if the links are natural it will not matter how many you get and it won't hurt your rankings or anythings. Like if I came up with a wonderful new widget or tool or something and it was so great that everyone started linking to me it would not be penalized (even if it was a new site and it received 100,000 links the first day). Because Google can tell if you are receiving a lot of links because your website is extremely useful or because you are buying links.
Depends on the origin of the links. You get quality natural links from respected blogs on the same niche as your site, noone will question the integrity of those links. You get 100 links from unoriginal, DMOZ extracted directories with more links than content, you may suffer the consequences. Then again you are questioning Google's algorithm which is a black box noone fully comprehends.
Don't worry about the low quality links. Just focus on getting a few really high quality links each day / week /month that will put you apart from your competitors. High quality sites have a better ability to pass on link authority, and its reasonable to assume that they will pass it on faster.
I have heard a good rule of thumb is to use the # of years your site is old to add on a daily basis. Example, For a site that is less than a year old, add 1 link per day. 3 year old site, 3 per day, etc. Can't say that I have followed that rule strictly, but just a rule of thumb. Brian